Is the Steam Deck worth it in 2023?

Back in July 2021, Valve announced the Steam Deck. It is a portable PC that is running on Steam OS and is probably the nearest system to rival a Nintendo Switch in my eyes.

What makes it great is the control layout, it is similar to an Xbox Controller but also has two trackpads, one on either side and haptic feedback that is similar to a vibration system on the Xbox/PS controllers.

What makes the Steam Deck great is that it aims to run your existing Steam library, so we don’t need to re-purchase games specifically for the Steam Deck.

Ever since I got my hands on one of these devices I would say it has done what no other system was able to do. Back in 2015, I used to frequently play the odd games but as I got busier it was less frequent. My daughter Sienna was born in 2016 and this became even less so.

By the time we had Sebastian in 2018, my gaming time was relegated to the occasional game of FIFA. However, I always had a passion for gaming, back in the Xbox days I quickly got to 70K+ Gamerscore but then life got in the way and my gaming time slowed to a halt. Along came the Steam Deck and this rekindled my interest in gaming again.

Don’t get me wrong I had a Nintendo Switch, but even though I would regularly add to my gaming collection, actually playing and completing these games were less likely. The last game on the old systems I remember finishing was GTA 5 on the Xbox One and Red Dead Redemption, before that on the Xbox 360.

So why do I love the Steam Deck?

• Community
• Emulation capabilities – The Steam Deck is a powerhouse when it comes to emulating systems, right up until the Nintendo Switch (BOTW 30fps with Yuzu).
• Tinkering & Plugins
• The easy entry point to PC gaming
• Desktop Mode (Linux Desktop, YES!!!)

I picked up a Steam Deck and have since completed Detroit: Become Human. I know this is a Playstation game, but as I moved away from the Playstation after the PS3 I had not played it. The Steam Deck experience blew me away for a handheld. I ran it at a stable framerate at 60fps.

Of course, as a tinkerer one of the first things I installed was the CryoByte33 Mod to enable better memory swap and changed the video memory to 4GB from the out-of-the-box 1GB.

This mod does give you a noticeable performance boost (there have been reported issues for Red Dead Redemption 2, but I didn’t experience the same).

The Steam Deck has become an amazing device for playing both older Triple-A titles and emulating past systems. From old systems such as Atari and the C64, all the way up to Xbox and the Nintendo Switch.

Whether you want to add these games to show on Steam or load an alternative OS containing the games, such as Botocera.

For every single device we most likely ever buy, there is always the possibility that we’d have buyer’s remorse or something that isn’t quite right. Well, the same can be said for buying the Steam Deck, the biggest frustration is the battery life. Valve opted for a 40 Watt hr battery and that means any power-hungry game is going to eat the battery fast.

For instance, Cyber Punk 2077, load this up and you’re lucky to get 2hrs battery life, you do have the option to edit the power levels and also reduce the resolution on the game. However, if you aren’t a technical person and just want a pickup-and-play scenario it can be a little clunky and requires hand-holding.

Is anything else bad?

• Battery Life.
• Not OLED Screen.
• 16:10 – Most games are 16:9, therefore you get black bars.
• 60HZ screen – restricts overall FPS possible.
• Fan Noise / Heat – one fan mounted in the middle was a mistake in my view.

When Valve released the Steam Deck, they did something different. Rather than just ordering and it becoming a favourite for scalpers, Valve made it so you had to be registered on Steam and had to of previously made a purchase, this was awesome to allow people to get their hands on it.

However, that wasn’t going to mean it would be easy to get one. Valve opened up a waitlist and it became a wait-and-see to get one.

Eventually, we got one and were glad we did.

Could we say the same in 2023? Well yes, 100% we still recommend the Steam Deck. But, Asus has given this a little doubt by announcing the ROG Ally back on April 1st.

After Asus announced it the natural assumption was that it was an April fool’s joke, it looked and it seemed like Valve was cornering the portable PC market. Now though it is different, said to feature between 1.5x – 2x the performance of the Steam Deck, the ROG Ally seems an obvious contender.

However, it isn’t released yet and we don’t know the overall power draw or battery life, they are due to make an announcement on May the 11th 2023.